The Aftermath 2 (Merlin) ON HOLD

Chapter Two: Counsel

Merlin had not brought up Freya in his and Arthur's return to the castle. Arthur would not ask, no matter how much he wanted to, it was for Merlin to decide if and when such a conversation would be brought up.

The royal was glad when, a few days after the anniversary of the druid girl's death, as the warlock was readying him for bed he started talking about her. Arthur just stood and listened to the words of his friend, watching how he reminisced in the memories and grew teary at her departure.

"I know it's hard for you to understand why I forgave you. But i didn't have a choice, you were my destiny: my feelings, my love were of no consequence to destiny."

Arthur placed an arm on his friends shoulder "Well they are to me."

Merlin nodded to his King with a smile and bid him goodnight.

As the Warlock returned hurriedly to his room, he shut the door harshly and fell to his knees. He looked down at his bloodied fingers and palms. In telling the story about Freya it had awoken the dormant anger inside of him once more. As he looked back up from his hands, his eyes shone red as tears escaped the ducts. Merlin had to do something... something to release this fuelling anger, he screamed at the top of his lungs in anguish (thank god for his soundproofing spells) the scream may have drawn the warlocks red eyes away but his frustration still remained. Merlin got up from his knees and planted his fist into the wall. It made no consequence to the sound stone structure of the castle but at the impact Merlin lost his breath and shouted in pain as he held his fist with his other hand, the bruises already forming blue and purple in colour.

Great how was he going to hide this?

He couldn't very well go to Gaius and ask him to help because the old man would question him and if Merlin wrapped a bandage around it it would only draw more attention to it. The boy just hoped that the swelling and bruising would go down by the morning.

When morning came his hand was an absolute mess, more swollen and purple then before, not to mention extremely painful. Deciding to get up and stroll around the lower town, completely ignoring that he had a King to attend to, the Warlock smiled at the sight of magic being used in the streets. Puppet shows with no strings for the children, more food stalls and supplies due to the help of witchcraft. Camelot was thriving.

But Merlin couldn't help but notice the odd stares he was receiving. Sure most people now knew him as a powerful warlock and would perhaps glance over to him and smile in the first few weeks of this information becoming public. But this time it was only a select few people who looked oddly at him, he couldn't understand why. Looking himself up and down to make sure it wasn't because of his clothing attire he thought he looked pretty normal. That was until, when he lifted his head, his eyes caught a glance at a shiny reflective object hanging on one of the market stalls. The Warlock went over to the mirror-like object and saw himself, he saw the black veins clawing up his neck.

"Is there anything I can help you with?" The woman at the stall queried.

"True sight." He whispered to himself.

"What was that?" The same woman asked, as she couldn't quite make out the words the boy had spoken.

Merlin started looking frantically around, anyone with pure magic had true sight, and if they had true sight they could see his blackened veins. That is why people had been giving him odd looks. Gaius had not used magic in so long that his sight must be failing him, but for all these youthful active magic users the lines were clear as day.

"Err nothing, sorry" The servant mumbled as he walked away from the stand.

Cautiously trying to avoid any glares the boy made his way through the town and practically jumped out of his skin when Gwaine and Percival appeared behind him and grabbed ahold of him.